Syrup for pancakes and waffles at the grocery store can get pretty expensive by the bottle for something that's caramel color, corn syrup, and a few stabilizers and additives. There's no reason to buy it, even if you like the flavor—making your own at home is easy, gets you more syrup for the cost of your ingredients, and with this recipe, you can even doctor it up a bit to make a delicious breakfast treat.

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If you like the sweeter, smoother taste of sugar syrup, you can make your own at home that tastes just like the stuff you'll at the grocery store with some sugar, molasses, water, vanilla extract, and a dash of maple syrup. The full recipe from the folks at Savvy Housekeeping is at the link below, but even though it looks like a lot of ingredients to buy just to make pancake syrup, they're all good items to keep in a well-stocked pantry anyway. You could even swap out the vanilla for almond or hazelnut extract to change up the flavor. The real kicker though is the dash of vodka that they suggest for the recipe. It's supposed to extend the shelf-life of the syrup, but if you prefer your syrup completely booze-free, you can omit it.

Granted, part of me wants to suggest you give up syrup entirely and go all maple syrup or go home, but there's always room for options. Plus, Savvy Housekeeping points out that we may be looking at a maple syrup shortage soon, so it's time to get creative. What do you think? Too much fuss for something you can get off the shelf? How would you improve the recipe? Let's hear it in the comments below.